Chapter 283: Valve Stem, Steel Balls, Leather Pouch

After the three separated, Wang An returned to the supply and marketing cooperative, bought a lot of coarse iron wire, fine iron wire, and many springs for making traps, and also bought many long nails and short nails.

Whether it's rabbit snares or traps, they are all made of iron wire and belong to consumables, so they must be replenished at any time.

Nails, like iron wire, are weighed by the jin and calculated by price, but perhaps because of the craftsmanship, nails are slightly more expensive than iron wire, at 1.4 yuan per jin.

The reason he bought nails was that Wang An discovered that he didn't know when there would be more animals at home.

Nails are something that can be used to nail some cages of various sizes.

Besides, iron wire and nails are also daily necessities in rural areas and can always be used, so buying a lot won't be redundant or wasteful.

Finally, after Wang An walked around the supply and marketing cooperative, he bought a bundle of bicycle valve stems, 5 jin of steel balls, and two packs of Bingcheng cigarettes before turning and walking out of the supply and marketing cooperative.

For bicycles in this era, valve stems must be used for the tires, including the tires of donkey carts with wire wheels, which must also use valve stems.

Valve stem,

This valve stem thing is actually a hollow rubber tube with very good elasticity.

Besides being used on tires, this thing has no other function, but Wang An bought this thing to make slingshots.

And steel balls are actually used for wire wheels. Mao Lu carts in this era rarely use bearings, because whole sets of bearings are very expensive.

Basically, they are loose steel balls and ball bowls, used to replace bearings; if they break, you just change the steel balls or ball bowls.

And Wang An bought this thing to use as slingshot ammo.

Because there are many various types of birds in this era, and there are also many squirrels in the forest.

Using a gun to shoot birds or squirrels is absolutely impossible.

If a bullet goes through, whether it's a bird or a squirrel, it will be smashed to pieces.

So if you want to hit small animals, you can only use a "weapon" like a slingshot that doesn't have particularly great lethality.

A slingshot can actually be considered a weapon!

When skimming the perimeter with dogs, the use of a slingshot is not great, because you have to chase the dogs.

If you use a slingshot to hit small animals while chasing the dogs, that's purely bullshitting.

After running, you're tired like a dog; where would you have the time and energy to ponder small animals?

But now that the dogs are injured, if the three of them go into the mountains to skim the perimeter, whether they can find prey every time is completely unknown.

But after going into the mountains, you can't just check snares and look at traps.

So, Wang An wanted to make a few slingshots and also bought many steel balls.

In this way, even if they can't find prey in the mountains, they can hit some squirrels or birds; at least they won't return empty-handed.

You have to know how much effort it took for Wang An to find prey every time he went into the mountains to skim the perimeter when he first reborn.

Although he didn't return empty-handed every time, that was just good luck, but luck is a very precarious thing.

If you rely on luck for everything, it's better to go see the Buddha early and ask him how to get a lot of luck?

Slingshot rubber strips in this era are mostly made from old bicycle inner tubes.

But bicycles are not common in rural areas, and not only is this thing unaffordable, but bicycle tickets are also very hard to get.

So old bicycle inner tubes are not that easy to get either.

You have to know that every bicycle inner tube is patched and patched again before it is replaced.

And if you want to make a slingshot, compared to bicycle inner tubes, using valve stems is actually the most perfect.

Because after cutting bicycle inner tubes into narrow strips, only the middle one is relatively straight.

The side strips are curved, so the force is uneven, and the rebound force doesn't go in a straight line.

Making a slingshot with such strips, wanting to hit accurately, is seriously not just ordinary difficult!

But valve stems don't have many shortcomings; not only are they straight, but they have great elasticity and strong power, and most importantly, making a slingshot with this thing is relatively accurate.

Of course, this thing isn't cheap; one piece is over a foot long, about 33 centimeters, and costs 8 cents each.

And to make one slingshot, you need 8 valve stems, 4 on each side. At least 6 are needed, reaching 3 on each side; any fewer, and the elasticity isn't enough, the power is insufficient, and hitting small animals is useless.

Steel balls aren't cheap either, 1 cent per grain, 2.3 yuan per jin, and one jin is about 240 grains, and Wang An bought 5 jin, which is like saving 50 cents.

Actually, slingshots can also use stones or mud pellets, but stones aren't round and aren't easy to use at all.

And mud pellets need sticky clay, which needs to be air-dried and then baked, and there's simply no time, so he has to use steel balls to bridge the gap.

Wang An absolutely wouldn't go to the trouble of making mud pellets, because Wang An felt this job was suitable for Mu Xueli and Wang Li.

You can't have Wang An provide the slingshot and also have Wang An make the ammo, right? No one owes anyone anything.

After coming out of the supply and marketing cooperative, Wang An found a secluded place and organized the money in his pocket.

This time coming to the supply and marketing cooperative, he sold furs, bear gallbladders, and the single-barrel shotgun inside the cooperative for 3985.8 yuan, and sold guns outside the cooperative for 1600 yuan.

Among this money, the 150 yuan for the single-barrel shotgun belonged to Wang An himself, so Wang An took out 150.8 yuan without hesitation and put it into his own coat pocket.

Then he combined the remaining 3830 yuan and the 1600 yuan from selling guns, which became 5430 yuan.

40% of the money belonged to Wang An, so Wang An took out two whole stacks and then counted out 17 "Great Unity" notes, totaling 2170 yuan.

Wang An suddenly discovered that the amount of money he made from the dead was also seriously not small.

This f*cking, one batch after another, there's always a chance to get rich; it would be strange if there wasn't!

The remaining 3260 yuan was divided into two equal parts, each 1630 yuan.

After organizing everything, Wang An looked at his watch; it wasn't noon yet, so he drove the sled toward the market.

Because it was just after the New Year, people didn't have much money in their hands, so the market was relatively deserted now; one could say there were more people selling things than buying things.

Just as he entered the market, Wang An saw an Ewenki old man selling leather pouches.

A leather pouch is a water bottle; one kind is made by using a tanned animal bladder as an inner liner, and then using tanned fur to wrap and sew the animal bladder.

The other kind uses a gourd ladle as an inner liner, wrapped and sewn with tanned fur on the outside.

However, for holding alcohol, it's best to use the one with a gourd ladle inner liner, because using an animal bladder to hold alcohol will have a special taste.

Of course, those who don't mind this taste don't care.

Wang An discovered that these leather pouches were sewn seriously quite beautifully, 20 cents each, not expensive, so he bought two animal bladder ones and three gourd ones without hesitation.

Mainly because these leather pouches are very convenient to use, and slight bumps and falls are basically fine.

Especially the animal bladder ones, they are generally fine even if you fall off a horse.

And whether it's holding water or alcohol, they can seriously hold quite a lot.

Besides, making this thing also requires high technical skills, mainly the tanning of the bladder; the average person really can't do this job.

Mainly because the bladder is too thin; if you don't know how to handle it, you'll accidentally break it.

Finally, this honest Ewenki old man gave Wang An an animal bladder leather pouch as a gift.

This action made Wang An feel quite embarrassed.

So, Wang An took two packs of Bingcheng cigarettes from the sled and gave them to this Ewenki old man.

Reciprocity, no problem.

Begging for follow-reads, begging for follow-reads, if you have tickets, please reward, thank you, thank you.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 284 =====